PSN

The guys at Harmonix are fairly occupied working on continuous downloadable content for Dance Central, but apparently there is something else in the works for the music game moguls. Brian Chan, who was the senior designer for Rock Band 3, has mentioned on his own public resume that he has begun working on a new Harmonix project, but nothing matching his description has yet been announced by the video game company.

Sony's PS Vita handheld with ship with limits on multitasking preventing web browsing while a game is running in the background, as well as on how many PlayStation Network accounts can be used with a single unit, new information ahead of the console's launch has confirmed. The company confirmed to AV Watch that, at least at launch, although gamers will be able to temporarily leap out of their current play and check their friends list, music and Twitter, they won't be able to browse the web.

Sony has just announced via its PlayStation Network blog that the online gaming platform will be undergoing a routine scheduled maintenance tomorrow, November 17. However, this one isn't quite as routine as the system will be offline for almost a full day starting from 8am to 10pm PST. Sony did not detail reasons for the long maintenance period nor what improvements to the platform, if any, can be expected afterwards.

Sony has revealed details on a new security issue, with hackers supposedly testing a 93,000-strong list of leaked usernames and passwords to see if they'll grant access to the PlayStation Network and other services. "The overwhelming majority" of the attacks, Sony's Chief Information Security Officer Philip Reitinger confirmed on the company's PlayStation blog, have failed, leading the company to suspect that the inaccurate list has come from a third-party source rather than Sony's own servers. As well as the PSN, the Sony Entertainment Network and Sony Online Entertainment networks were targeted.

The PlayStation Network has experienced another outage today that began early this morning and is still ongoing at the moment. This certainly brings back bad memories of the last time the PSN went down, which lasted for over a month and involved plenty of compromised data. Luckily, this time it seems Sony has got it more under control.

It you are a gamer on the PS3 and you like to play online games you need to be on the lookout when you log in for a pop up that is trying to get you to agree to new PSN terms of service. Apparently, somewhere in the tiny print there is a message that you can opt out of the new terms of service by sending a letter to Sony. However, you apparently still have to agree to them or you will not be allowed to access the PSN for online play.

Sony has announced today the hiring of a former official at the Department of Homeland Security to head its efforts to protect Sony's game networks from future hacker attacks. This move comes just a few months after the high-profile attack on the PlayStation Network (PSN) that brought the platform down for over a month and saw the data of 100 million users compromised.

Earlier this week, reports surfaced suggesting Sony would be launching the PlayStation 4 next year. Almost immediately, Sony fans jumped for joy at the news, while Microsoft fans scoffed at the idea. And along the way, Sony hasn’t said for sure what might happen.

Even so, I’m here to tell you (and Sony) that the PlayStation 4 should launch as early as possible next year.

Sony has confirmed it will be using a new system called PSN Pass to authenticate online access to certain new games, a move that is being seen as the company's latest attempt to undermine the second-hand games market. Resistance 3, set to be released in September, will be the first title to use PSN Pass Gamasutra reports, with further implementation being decided on a game-by-game basis.

Sony has been accused of purposefully delaying its public announcements regarding the extent of the PlayStation Network hack, with official Japanese government documentation suggesting that gaming chief Kaz Hirai gave incorrect information in his May 1 public statement. According to the report, which Kyodo news acquired under a freedom of information request, Sony internally confirmed on April 25 (US time) that a "fairly large amount of data" had been stolen by hackers; however, Sony's press release the following day suggested only that the company could not "rule out the possibility" that personal data had been leaked.